Active clinical trials for "Psychotic Disorders"

Sleep disturbances and cognitive dysfunction are consistently reported as extremely troublesome aspects of psychotic illnesses. While sleep disturbances are not included in definitions of psychosis they are associated with poor levels of daily function and impaired social recovery. Despite sleep problems being documented as co-occurring with psychosis, sleep remains unexamined as a potential therapeutic target pathway for social recovery. Specific areas of cognition are known to be associated with psychosis, sleep deficits and daily function, yet these have not been tested as possible mediators of the association between improved sleep and better daily function and social recovery. This study will examine the relationship between sleep quality, daily function and ultimately social recovery in early psychosis. A secondary aim will examine whether specified areas of cognition (i.e. attention, memory, executive function, social and emotional recognition) mediate the proposed association between sleep and social recovery. Participants will have experienced a first episode psychosis and be currently engaged with CAMEO early intervention, in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) or Early Intervention in Psychosis Services (EIS), in Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). Cameo CPFT and Early Intervention in Psychosis Services NSFT are services for people aged 14-65 years old who are experiencing symptoms of psychosis for the first time (http://www.cameo.nhs.uk and https://www.nsft.nhs.uk/adults/service/early-intervention-in-psychosis-services-norfolk-and-waveney-103/). A publicly available, online intervention based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for insomnia (Sleepio) will be utilised to improve sleep. Participants will be randomised to receive the intervention + treatment as usual (TAU) through their early intervention team or TAU alone over an eight-week period. The entire study will last for seventeen weeks including an eight-week follow-up period.

This study aims to evaluate the acute effects of nimodipine on cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia using a battery of cognitive assessments.The subjects will also complete a 30-minute structural and functional MRI scan, with the goal of linking brain activity with working memory performance. Investigators predict that the performance increase induced by nimodipine will be greater in subjects who carry the A allele for the Calcium Voltage-Gated Channel Subunit Alpha1 C (CACNA1C) risk single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs1006737) in comparison to the response of G carriers.

Background: Psychoeducation is a process used in the realization of the principles of treatment and rehabilitation of mental illnesses and aims to help the patient and his/her family outside the hospital, to help the patient cope with the problems, experiencing, and to support them to live productive lives in society. Aims: This study aims to determine the effect of psychoeducation, given in a psychiatry dayhospital, on patients' self-sufficiency and well-being. Methods: The research is a single-blind randomized controlled experimental study. The sample of the study consisted of 28 schizophrenic patient(14experiment-14control), who agreed to participate in the study, followed in XXX University Psychiatry Day Hospital. In the study, an 8-week psychoeducation program was applied to the experimental group, and no intervention was made tothe control group. Socio-demographic data form, self-sufficiency scale, and well-being scale were used as data collection tools. The data obtained were analyzed using theSPSS-23 package program. Results: After the eight-week psychoeducation program, the pretest and posttest scores of the evaluations obtained from the scales of both groups were compared. It was found that while there was no change in thescores of the control group, there was an increase in the well-being and self-efficacy scores of the experimental group. While the increase in well-being was statistically significant(p<0.05), the increase in self-sufficiency score wasnot statistically significant(p>0.05), but the numerical increase was considered tobe aclinically significant result.

Antipsychotic medication shows generally good effect sizes when looking at reduction of positive psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia, such as paranoia or delusion. However, social functioning often remains deficient in patients, meaning dopamine-receptor antagonists are not sufficient in treatment of people with schizophrenia. A naturalistic video-based paradigm, named MASC has been used in the past to model over- and undermentalizing in patients with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, since deficits in mentalizing can be explained by either overinterpreting a social situation (e.g. paranoid thoughts about intentions of others towards self) or by lacking the skill to read intentions of others. To find out whether experimental manipulation via a non-competetive N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist can induce difficulties with social cognition similar to those observed in people with schizophrenia, the investigators will conduct a RCT applying either ketamine or a placebo intravenously while participants are completing the above mentioned mentalizing task in the fMRI-scanner.

This project tests the feasibility of implementing a smartphone application - Ginger.io - in the UC Davis Early Psychosis Program, and investigates whether mobile health technology can improve treatment delivery and outcomes in individuals with early psychosis. Ginger.io is a smartphone application that utilizes methods of passive data collection (i.e. data gathered without active interaction/contribution from the user) to gather communication, movement, and interaction data from smartphone devices to model individuals' social, physical, and mental health. These models are used to infer health-related outcomes and could inform treatment. By implementing the Ginger.io application in the UC Davis Early Psychosis Program with an integrated clinical and research infrastructure, the investigators will be able to quickly determine its feasibility for use in early psychosis populations, while simultaneously developing its ability to systematically capture aspects of relapse and recovery that are unique to this patient population. Objectives: This project has three principle objectives related to early psychosis care: 1) improve treatment delivery, 2) improve patient outcomes, and 3) lower treatment costs. The project will target individuals in the early stages of psychotic illness, including individuals at high risk for developing a psychotic illness (termed "clinical high risk" or CHR) and individuals within three years of their first psychotic episode (termed "first episode psychosis" or FEP). The early stages of psychotic illness represent a critical period for intervention; early identification of clinical deterioration and subsequent targeted intervention is crucial for rapid remission of symptoms and reduced relapse rates. However, without the information necessary to identify patients in need of such intervention, providers are limited in their ability to respond rapidly. Within the UCD Early Psychosis Program, a mobile health application such as Ginger.io has the potential to equip the providers and caregivers with valuable insight into a patient's status in real-time without the burden of increased appointments and intrusive monitoring, allowing the identification of early psychosis patients most in need of outreach, and routing of treatment resources to the right patients at the right time.

The research team will develop and test a prototype version of OnTrack>An Online Role-Playing Game (OnTrack>The Game or OTG), an online role-playing game designed for youth and young adults experiencing First Episode Psychosis (FEP). Phase I showed positive changes in quantitative measures of hope and recovery, as well as an enthusiastic response to the prototype as evidenced by qualitative interviews. In Phase II, the research team will refine, expand and finalize OTG and evaluate the effectiveness of OTG.

"Shared decision-making" is being promoted as a promising approach for engaging patients with schizophrenia in medical decisions and improving satisfaction and adherence. To implement shared decision-making, both physicians and patients should commit to it and engage in a mutual decision process. Most research, however, has addressed interventions that either focus on the doctors' side (e.g. "communication skills") or on informing patients about treatment options (e.g. "decision aids"). These approaches have been shown to be feasible in clinical practice but had no strong effects on treatment patterns or adherence, possibly because they were insufficient to motivate and enable patients to engage actively in decision-making. Moreover, these interventions still rely on the doctor's willingness to share decisions, which has been shown to vary considerably. To overcome these limitations and since many patients do not feel competent to participate in decision-making we developed an intervention that focuses on patients' communicative competencies. this intervention, a five session group-training, will be implemented for inpatients suffering from schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study is to use proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) at 4 Tesla to measure brain glycine levels noninvasively at baseline and for 2 hours after a single oral dose of a concentrated glycine-containing beverage, and to compare MRS glycine measurements to glycine blood levels in samples obtained after each MRS spectrum. The investigators hypothesize that they will observe a high correlation between the magnitude increases in brain and plasma glycine levels over this time frame. The investigators also hypothesize that we will observe large intersubject variability in glycine uptake rates into brain and blood. The investigators also hypothesize that subjects with a glycine decarboxylase (GLDC) mutation (triplication) will have lower baseline plasma and brain glycine levels and will experience smaller brain and plasma glycine increases after glycine consumption than controls or family members without the GLDC mutation.

Up to 77% of young people with severe mental illnesses smoke, a rate that is up to five times higher than the rate of daily smoking in other young adults. Contrary to popular belief, smoking tobacco does not provide any benefit for mental illness symptom control. People with severe mental illnesses (SMI: schizophrenia and severe mood disorders) are dying, on average, 25 years earlier than those without SMI. Much of this early mortality is due to higher rates of heart and lung diseases, cancers, strokes, and diabetes. Cessation of smoking in these transition-age young adults can prevent cancer and increase life expectancy to that of non-smokers. Combination treatments are effective in this group and therefore key to improving outcomes, but few SMI smokers use them despite their interest in quitting. Motivational interventions for cessation increase interest in quitting, but public mental health clinicians do not deliver them, in part due to economic reasons. Thus cost effective methods to deliver motivational interventions to engage young smokers with SMI into treatment are needed. To address this gap, we have developed an electronic decision support system (EDSS) for smoking cessation that is specifically tailored for smokers with SMI, who tend to have cognitive deficits and limited computer experience. Similar to EDSSs developed for other health problems, this EDSS provides information and motivational exercises within an easy-to-use, web-based computer program that can be used with minimal or no staff assistance. Initial piloting of the EDSS in middle-aged SMI smokers showed excellent usability and promising efficacy. Pilot-testing among young patients suggested that the EDSS increased motivation to quit smoking and provided direction to adapt the format and content of the EDSS for young SMI smokers. The purpose of this proposal is to further develop the motivational decision support system and to test its ability to motivate young smokers with SMI to quit smoking with cessation treatment.

In this translational research proposal, based on our formulation, we seek to confirm and expand upon data obtained in our pilot study suggesting that cannabis and the cannabinoid agonist dronabinol, given in low dose to patients with schizophrenia and co-occurring cannabis use disorder, will in fact ameliorate the brain reward circuit dysregulation in these patients and, thereby, provide evidence in support of the role of cannabis as a "self-medication" agent for them.